


Birthday

by teej_318



Series: Byler and Reddie Oneshots [9]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Boys Hugging, Boys In Love, Fluff, M/M, Mike has a surprise or two for Will, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Will's birthday, boys cuddling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-12
Updated: 2019-07-12
Packaged: 2020-06-26 18:22:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19773820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/teej_318/pseuds/teej_318
Summary: It's Will's birthday and Mike comes over to the Byers household to celebrate his best friend.





	Birthday

Will hurried to the front door as soon as he heard knocking. It was his birthday and he was going to spend the evening with his brother and mother, and Mike was coming over to spend the night. Although the rest of The Party had wanted to come, they were out of town on vacation for spring break. Mike was the only one whose family didn't go anywhere for the week. Privately, this made Will extra happy; while he would love for the rest of The Party to attend, something about spending his birthday alone with Mike made it seem all the more special to him.

As soon as Will opened the door, Mike was beaming at him.

"Happy Birthday, Will!" Mike shouted as he lunged forward and plowed into Will and gave him a large bear hug. 

"Oof," Will said as Mike crashed into him. He was smiling as he wrapped his arms around Mike. "Hi, Mike!"

"Hi!" Mike said back, pulling apart the hug and smiling at Will. He bent down and picked up his duffel bag and followed Will inside before Will shut the door behind them. 

"Is dinner almost ready? I'm starving!"

"I see you have your priorities sorted, as always," Will said slyly, grinning at Mike.

"Hey! I had an early lunch!"

Will giggled.

"Yeah, yeah, Mom is almost done. She's making lasagna!"

"Oooh, our favorite! Well, I'd better get to your room and grab your present so we can eat!"

Will grinned as Mike walked down the hallway and into Will's room. He walked into the kitchen, where Joyce was standing near the stove and Jonathan was filming next to the table with Bob's old camcorder.

"Do you have to be filming?" Will asked as he sat down at the table.

"Yes, I do!" Jonathan replied, turning the camera to face Will.

" _Jonathan_!" Will said in mock annoyance, but he was smiling.

" _Will_!" Jonathan replied in a similar tone. "You know this is gonna happen even if you don't want it too. Besides, you make the best faces whenever we sing 'Happy Birthday' to you."

"He's right, you know," Joyce said as he opened the oven door and pulled out the lasagna and sat it on top of the stove.

"Right about what?" asked Mike as he walked into the kitchen carrying a rectangular-shaped gift and set it on the counter with the rest of Will's presents. "Hi, Jonathan, Mrs. Byers."

"Hi there, Mike, I'm glad you could join us," Joyce said, giving Mike one of her warm smiles. "I'm a little disappointed that everyone else couldn't make it..."

"Mom, what'd I tell you? They're all on vacation for spring break and their parents made them go!" Will said. "It's not like Dustin, Lucas and Max wanted to go. They told me they wanted to stay behind to celebrate.

"Well, anyway, I’m just glad you could join us, Mike."

"Me too. I don't like waiting to give Will his presents, but I'll wait until after we've eaten."

"Mike!"

Mike giggled as he sat down next to Will. Jonathan focused the video camera on the two of them.

"What, are we gonna be famous or something?" Mike asked.

"Nope, just capturing all the good stuff so we can laugh about it later," Jonathan replied.

"Nothing like laughing about it now, though, is there?" Mike asked, frowning at Jonathan.

"Good point," Jonathan said, lowering the camera and setting it down on the counter next to the gifts as Joyce carried the stray of lasagna over to the table and placed it in the center of the table.

"There we go," Joyce said happily. "Now, I'll just get the garlic bread and we can tuck in."

Joyce hurried back to the stove and picked up a small tray of garlic bread and set it on the table too. Within moments, everyone had food on their plates and they ate happily. The lasagna Joyce had prepared was delicious and they all had second helpings before everyone’s plate was clear and their bellies were that much fuller.

"Well, that was certainly yummy," Joyce said. "I don't know about you, boys, but I might have to wait a while before I have some cake."

Predictably, Mike and Will launched into protests, practically demanding that they have cake right away. Joyce and Jonathan chuckled happily at this and let them carry on for several seconds before Joyce stood up.

"All right, all right, I get it, it's time for cake."

Mike and Will cheered. They hurried to help Joyce put away the dirty plates and put the leftover lasagna into the fridge; there was no garlic bread leftover. Once the table was cleared, Mike and Will sat back down, both of them bouncing with anticipation as Jonathan picked up the camera again and Joyce started walking toward the table, carrying Will's cake with the candles lit.

Joyce led them in singing the happy birthday song to Will. Jonathan zoomed in on Will's face as he grinned shyly while everyone sang. Mike was singing obnoxiously loud and it caused Will to blush. Finally, the singing stopped and Will had to laugh away some giggles before he closed his eyes, making a wish and blew out the candles. 

Everyone cheered for him, but Mike's cheering was the loudest. Will beamed at them as Joyce took the candles out of the cake and started cutting slices for everyone. They followed the traditional birthday rule of letting Will eat a bite of cake first before they ate, too. The cake was chocolate and was homemade; Will always preferred his mother's cakes to those made at the store.

Once their small plates were cleared, Mike helped Joyce put them away before they grabbed Will's presents and sat them on the table too. Will excitedly opened his gifts. Joyce had gotten him a brand new set of colored pencils and Jonathan had gotten him a new sketchbook. Will saved Mike's present for last. He opened it hurriedly and his eyes widened in shock as VHS tapes of the _Star Wars_ trilogy fell out of the wrapping.

"Oh, Mike!" Will exclaimed, looking up at Mike, who was beaming at him.

"Happy Birthday!" Mike exclaimed. "I told your Mom this is what I was getting for you, so we could watch all of the movies tonight!"

"Thank you, Mike!" Will said as he pulled Mike in for a hug. Mike enthusiastically hugged him back and Jonathan filmed them hugging. Joyce had somehow managed to sneak a camera into the kitchen and snapped a picture. Mike and Will broke apart when they saw the flash.

"No pictures!" Will demanded, but he was grinning.

"Too late, honey!" Joyce retorted, giving Will a mischievous smile. 

They quickly cleaned up the wrapping paper mess before Will led them all into the living room to watch the movies. Joyce and Jonathan both sat in the recliners around the sofa while Mike and Will sat on the sofa together, buried underneath a blanket. Once the first movie started playing, Mike wordlessly reached over and grabbed onto one of Will's hands, lacing their fingers together. Will glanced up at Mike, who was looking at him as though silently asking if it was okay for them to hold hands. Will nodded at him and focused on the movie.

By the time the first movie was over, Joyce had fallen asleep in the recliner. The boys smiled at this and decided just to let her sleep before Jonathan put in _The Empire Strikes Back._ During this movie, Mike and Will were still holding hands and Will eventually rested his head on Mike's shoulder.

During _Return of the Jedi_ , Jonathan fell asleep, too, so Mike and Will were the only ones to enjoy the movie. Will's head was still laying on Mike's shoulder and Mike eventually lay his head on top of Will's head, the both of them feeling warm and fuzzy with this close contact.

At the end of the movie, Jonathan woke back up, looking exhausted. He woke Joyce up and the two of them hurried off to bed, not before giving Will one last birthday wish. Once they were alone, Will turned to Mike.

"Thanks so much for giving me those," he said happily. "That was an awesome birthday present."

"I'm glad you liked it. Should we get going to bed? I'm getting a little sleepy."

"Yeah," Will agreed, finally letting go of Mike's hand for the first time that evening. He missed the warmth that he had felt, but since Mike followed him close by, he wasn't disappointed. 

Will led Mike into his bedroom and the boys spent the next few minutes getting ready for bed. They took turns in the bathroom brushing their teeth and somehow Mike was finished before Will. When he returned to his room, Will was surprised to see Mike sitting on his bed, a gift bag sitting next to him.

"What's that?" Will asked as he walked into the room and sat down on his bed next to Mike.

"It's your real birthday present," Mike said shyly, not looking at Will.

"My real birthday present?"

Mike nodded.

"I wanted to give you something that I helped make, rather than just something I bought," Mike said, still not looking Will in the eyes.

"Mike, you didn't have to get me anything else."

"I know, but I wanted to, Will. Are you gonna open it?"

"Of course I am!" Will said excitedly as he pulled the gift bag toward him and hurriedly pulled the tissue paper out. Once the bag was empty of the paper, Will reached inside and pulled out a dark blue sweater. Will looked at it with interest and opened it. A large white W was knitted across the center of the sweater.

"Do you like it?" Mike asked.

"Oh, Mike, I love it!"

Mike smiled at Will, who was close to crying.

"I know how much you like borrowing my sweaters whenever you come over, and I wanted you to have one for yourself," Mike said quietly. "I asked my Mom to make one for you and I helped her when I could. Do you really like it, Will?"

"Of course I do, Mikey! I love it! Thank you so much!"

Will wrapped his arms around Mike and pulled him for a tight hug. This one was stronger than most of Will's hugs and Mike was slightly taken aback. He could tell this was Will's way of showing him gratitude. Mike could also sense that Will was trying to tell him something else without saying anything.

Mike broke apart the hug, but their kept their arms around each other. Will had started to cry, but he was smiling at Mike. 

"Thank you for coming over," Will whispered.

"Thank you for saying yes to being my friend when we were 5. I won't ever forget it, Will."

Will smiled at Mike and leaned forward, giving Mike a kiss on the cheek. Mike blushed slightly at this, but smiled at Will, pulling him in for another hug. He wrapped his arms around Will tightly, with one hand resting on Will's back and the other on the back of Will's head.

"Willie?"

"Yeah, Mikey?"

"Happy Birthday." 

**Author's Note:**

> You cannot tell me that Mike "It was the best thing I've ever done" Wheeler would not go above and beyond for Will's birthday like this. He is just the sweetest boy and must be protected.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this! Stay tuned for more Byler and Reddie one-shots throughout the month!
> 
> Come yell at me on Tumblr: [@wackywriterwhowriteswhenever](http://wackywriterwhowriteswhenever.tumblr.com)


End file.
